21 September, 2022
This week I had the pleasure of doing this podcast with Amea May, a Blepharoplasty Patient who is an absolute dynamo who has created her own brand which is thriving. Amea May is 25 years old, knows what she wants, and most definitely how to achieve it. This was such a fun podcast to do. She’s an inspirational woman and blepharoplasty patient!
Trish: Good morning everyone out there in podcast land. It’s Trish here from Plastic Surgery Hub Transforming Bodies podcast and I’m really, really excited today to talk to a beautiful young lady from Melbourne, now her name is Amea-May and Amea-May is just like, she’s a gem like she’s a genius, she’s just like created this complete brand with herself and with what she does. So she does eyelash extensions and she’s an influence so I’m really excited to have her here today. She just recently had a blepharoplasty procedure with Dr. Benjamin Burt in Melbourne. And she’s absolutely stoked about it. She looks amazing and so we’re gonna ask her all about it today. So welcome Amea-May.
Amea May: Hey. Thank you so much for the introduction.
Trish: Yeah. No worries at all. No worries at all. Yeah, so tell us about it. So you … cause I’ve looked at before photos and I’m like the same opinion as your boyfriend like oh my god, you so don’t need it but then I saw your after photos and I’m like “oh wow, what a difference. I can see why you wanted it.” So tell us about it, like how did you start … what made you decide that you wanted it and …
Amea May: Yes, so definitely it’s one of those things where you know I was quite young. I’m 25 now and I had it when I was probably 24 or … yeah I was probably 24 at the time. It was just over a year ago so that lines up about right. And I was thinking oh yeah I may as well do it, you know when I get older and I was just kinda in that mindset about it and then I thought you know what, why am I waiting until I’m older? I’m in my prime now and it bothers me now. Let’s not wait for it to get worse. I may as well get it done now and if I need it done again in the future … that’s the you know worst case scenario but if not like they’re already so heavy now that taking care of them means that if I want I can just kinda age gracefully from now.
Trish: Yeah, totally. And the thing is, you know if you, like a lot of people, I don’t know if this happened to you was it just the skin or was it affecting your eyesight?
Amea May: So, it wasn’t affecting my eyesight but it was quite heavy so if I was very, very tired, the skin would actually just kind of touch on my eyelashes. So I do feel like if I left it for a while I still would end up having that problem. But it wasn’t that bad but the skin kinda folds it over itself a few times so it really irritated the eczema on my eyelids as well, which I haven’t had since having the surgery.
Trish: Oh wow, that’s interesting. I wonder what that’s about?
Amea May: Just you know, just kinda chafing I think.
Trish: Oh yeah. True. True. That’s true. So tell me, I know that you know like it’s all about your eyes so you wanna be really careful with who you go to, how did you pick Dr. Benjamin Burt and yeah before, how did you go about finding him?
Amea May: So, it was quite easy for me actually I was very lucky because my partner actually his design agency does work for plastic surgery for women so he … they’ve also done some work for I think some other plastic surgery ones maybe or even he’s researched the other ones, you know to do their design work. So he could tell that Ben was the best and that, that’s who I should be seeing because I think he’d also seen some dungy ones in his research.
Trish: Oh totally, there’s some scary stuff you see out there. So, I know when we had a quick chat we spoke about you know you liked it for the fact that, that’s pretty much all he did was the eyes so, so tell us about that?
Amea May: Yeah so I really liked that he does pretty much just the Blepharoplasty, just the eyes, and I think a small amount of upper face lift that can kinda go along with the eyes as well so … yeah I like that he really did specialise in a specific area. I mean I told people how amazing he is but I’ve recommended you know if you want your boobs done don’t go to him, go to someone else.
Trish: Yeah. Course, of course. Yeah, so I definitely agree with ya. I think there’s some things that surgeons … just you know, just like, just totally, you know specialising like better than anything else that they might do. Like a lot of them are probably good at a lot of things but there’s always that one thing that they’re exceptional at.
Amea May: Yep, definitely can’t be exceptional at everything I don’t think. That’s not quite possible.
Trish: No, although you’re pretty good in your little, your poor little thing. So tell me, so with the treatment, so tell me about the process … so you went and had a consult with Dr. Burt.
Amea May: Yep, so I had a consult and he kinda like held a safety pin, not a safety pin, what is it, like a paper clip next to my eye so it kind of lifted up the skin as to you know how it would look. Cause it kind of just like sits into the crease so you can’t really see it, you can just see like how the skin would kind of sit and he kinda showed some photos and everything. And he said he was very conservative with how much he’d take and if at a later date we needed to do a little bit more, that then he could do that as well but he would rather do it in that more cautious approach as to taking too much. Because if you take too much then you can’t close your eyes properly, you get dry eyes and then you know a lot of other problems from that as well. So, yeah, I like that he was quite cautious and yeah he just said it was a personal preference thing. So, some people like it, some people don’t. It’s just my, well European background. We tend to have more heavy lids.
Trish: Okay. It was really interesting what you said about taking too much because I have actually in the past had someone send me some photos where they did have a Blepharoplasty and the surgeon took too much and, number one she couldn’t close her eyes and number two when her eyes were just straight you could actually see the tops of the whites of her eyeballs. Like just above her eyeballs, which was really upsetting. And you’re right, once you take too much you can’t go back and put it back in there.
Amea May: Yep, definitely.
Trish: I like that double prong approach. Now, normally, like what we find with the Bleph procedure, people normally get it done when they’re older.
Amea May: Yeah.
Trish: So obviously, you’ve got more, you had more of the hooded eye look and it was something that was bothering you, like forever, or like what made you even think that that was a thing to get done?
Amea May: So, I was aware that you could get it done when you were older so that’s what I was thinking, like oh yeah it’s definitely something that I would need when I am older. But then, when I kind of looked into it a little bit more you know it wasn’t completely unrealistic to get it done now. It’s kind of like you know when some women want to get their breasts done and they’re kinda told you know wait til you have kids, wait til you have kids. But if it’s something that their you know their not even really thinking about that at the time, it’s just something that’s quite bothering them now. If they kinda accept that they might need it done again later on then I don’t think it’s the worst kinda case scenario really. To me, it was, I get allergies, I’m kind of rubbing at my eyes a lot so I think that probably made the skin stretch worse. So that’s why they were getting so heavy and you know that I did have the eczema as well and the skin folding over a few times. So it was just a bit too much and I thought at least I can handle getting the skin taking out and then one of my concerns will be addressed like at least one, so there won’t be as many.
Trish: Of course. And so, all right. You had your consult and then how soon after that did you book in, and was it day surgery or you, like what was your, how long were you in the hospital or did you do it in the rooms? Or what was the process for you ?
Amea May: Yes, so after I did it, I went in to speak with … oh I don’t know like his assistant, liaison person, so she went over when he had some bookings and, I think we booked it two weeks out. So, generally there’s a long wait but I’m thinking maybe someone had to change their appointment or something so there was actually one quite soon. And I liked that there was one pretty soon because I didn’t have a long time to kind of dwell on it.
Trish: Yeah, I agree with you. When I decide to get it done, I wanna get it done straight away. The quicker, the better for me as well.
Amea May: Yeah, so I did it in the rooms. I didn’t go to the hospital. I didn’t get put under. For me, I can react a bit average to anaesthesia so it was better for me to do that anyway. So yeah it was quite quick and easy. The worse thing really was getting injected with the numbing agents.
Trish: Oh right, with the local…
Amea May: Yeah, yeah because after that you can’t really feel anything.
Trish: Yeah. And how long were you in there for? Like how long does the procedure take?
Amea May: It was really quick, so I was in there maybe 45 minutes. So, I know they did say it can take about an hour to an hour and a half. I think it just depends on the person really so even though we did have quite a lot to remove for me and, he did actually remove some fat as well from the eyelid area as well as the skin. I’m very, I’m one of those people where inside I might be stressing but I try to stay really still. It’s like when I got a tattoo as well, like I just try not to move. I just, you know panic inside but I know that it’s going to give them the chance to do the best job possible without me talking, and moving around, and freaking too much. Although we did actually talk and you know we had a chat about our dogs and stuff while we were doing it so, it was nice, it was pretty relaxed. Yeah, there wasn’t a huge amount really … I know some people will wanna get up and they’ll go to the bathroom in between and to me I couldn’t think of anything worse you know… just do it, get it done.
Trish: I know, imagine going to the bathroom and looking at yourself as well, like you were just like, nah, nah.
Amea May: No, even looking at myself after was quite scary.
Trish: Yeah. So he, he did, after … so did you have, you had stitches on your eyes obviously?
Amea May: Yeah.
Trish: Could you open your eyes straight away or did you have to keep them covered at all?
Amea May: No, I could open them straight away. So the good thing about me having it done while I was awake was that I was able to open my eyes when he needed and then close them. So he can kind of track and see how it’s going throughout the procedure. So, I thought that that was pretty good. I don’t know quite how they do that if someone got put under. I think they definitely do prefer to do it while someone is awake. As long as they’re not gonna freak out or have any kind of other underlying medical conditions where they need to be tracked in a hospital. So for me it was good and yeah I could open my eyes during. The worst thing about that though was just the light for him to see was very, very bright so … just having to open and look at that bright light. But you could open them straight away and then he showed me in the mirror before I left as well how it was looking so …
Trish: Wow.
Amea May: It’s just scary.
Trish: Did you have like black stitches or like what were your stitches like?
Amea May: So, I thought, cause for … if I send you a photo you can see. It looked like the lines. So obviously he had kind of drawn the line prior, I think to you know, mark out what he was doing. So the stitches themselves were very, very small but I thought that line was kind of like blood, and bruising, and swelling and all of those things but I think it was just his markings. The stitches themselves were actually so small, which is what I realised when they actually came out and then there was nothing on my eyelids except for the tiniest, faint red line through the crease of my eye. It was very, very minor. Yeah, you could barely even really see the stitches themselves but I thought it was a lot worse than what it was because of yeah, just the other markings that were there and just the kind of dry blood as well.
Trish: Yeah, and did you go back to the rooms to get your stitches taken out?
Amea May: Yep, yes …
Trish: How long?
Amea May: A week later, so seven days.
Trish: Okay. So in that seven days could you still kinda go out or just had to wear glasses or like, like how were you with going out?
Amea May: So, you could but, yeah, I did go out maybe like after the third day just to, you know the supermarket. But yeah you would wear sunglasses because it is swollen and you can see that there is something going on there. But my eyes themselves were quite strained so well, nothing really hurt, it’s kinda like at the end of the day where your eyes are just really sore. Like the actual eyeballs themselves were strained. I think it’s just you know there’s obviously swelling around there so it’s just a bit much for them so I don’t think you’d really want to go out and do too much during that time. Even at home when I was relaxing I was watching things on the TV but I had already seen before so I could just kind of lay there with my eyes closed and listen along, not having to watch too much because that was a bit much for my eyes.
Trish: Actually it sounds like the perfect time to listen to podcasts.
Amea May: Yeah, definitely, definitely listen to podcasts would be great.
Trish: So, you reckon basically one week out, you went back you got your stitches taken out and that’s it? Do you ever have to go back again?
Amea May: So, you go back and you have just some checkups and everything. So for me, I was quite lucky so before my surgery I went in three times over the week to have the heal light, so that was just gonna promote healing so that I didn’t bruise as much and healed quicker so I didn’t even bruise, I didn’t have any problems. I was just pretty much the perfect kind of patient.
Trish: Yep.
Amea May: Which would be also due to the fact that I am younger as well than the average person getting it done. And I slept upright for three to four days and then like slowly less upright, which helped as well. But then yeah, I think I went back maybe at three months just to see. And you would think after the first kind of month, I found that you know, I looked very normal, even after the first two weeks I looked quite normal. There was swelling but it wasn’t really obvious swelling. It just, yeah, you couldn’t really tell. I could only tell now this is how my photos looked from then, this is now. That my eyes look you know completely normal and then, then I guess they did look a bit swollen. So, go back at three months we can kinda see how they’re looking. We can assess if we think that we may need to take a little bit more from one side, or the other, or in general a little bit more. And then he wouldn’t actually take anything else if you wanted to have a little bit more touched up until six months. Because in that time, there’s still more swelling so I kinda thought no, there’s no more swelling this is how they are now but it was true, by six months they had changed again.
Trish: Yeah right.
Amea May: Yeah.
Trish: And did you take photos all the way through?
Amea May: A lot of the way through. So, I took a photo every day for the first week and then pretty regularly after that, every few weeks, every few months, did a few check ins with youtube and all of that just so that you can kinda see, even maybe if peoples results aren’t quite as good as mine, they didn’t heal quite as well, they can kind of see, you know still the progress from the start to three months and so on from there.
Trish: Yeah. Would you mind sharing those photos with us so we can show our community as well?
Amea May: Yeah, of course, that’s fine.
Trish: Awesome.
Amea May: They’re all out there online, not being kept secret or anything.
Trish: Yeah, great. Awesome. And what I’ll do on the bottom … when we do the blog for the podcast I’ll put the links to your, because you’ve got an amazing youtube channel. I just love it. I love your Instagram. I’ll also put a link to your website for your lash and beauty business as well.
Amea May: Thank you very much.
Trish: Yeah, no problem. So, if you could give anyone who is thinking of having this done … if you could give them one piece of take away advice, either wishing that before … that something really good for them to know, what would that actually be?
Amea May: So, my biggest piece of advice and I had a great, you know a great process with everything so, I’m happy with everything that I did. My biggest piece of advice would be for anyone looking into getting it done to not rush into it, to make sure you find a surgeon who has the before and after photos that you’re happy with, and then from there go in and have a consult. Find out the price and then whatever their price is, if that’s the person who you want, you have to pay it. So, I got asked constantly how much was it? How much was it? And I said it doesn’t matter because whoever you wanna see, you’re only gonna have one shot at getting it the best … any kind of reconstructive surgery is never going to be as good as if you’d just got the surgeon from the first time and you’re gonna end up spending so much more money if they get it botched and you have to have it fixed again. So, yeah just finding who you want, whatever their price is unfortunately you’re just gonna have to pay it so …
Trish: Yeah, it’s true and it’s true in five years time that two, three, four thousand dollar difference is gonna be nothing.
Amea May: Exactly. Often, it’s such a small amount and if someone does actually pay to get it fixed again the reconstruction surgery is gonna be more expensive than just getting it done. Plus, they have the initial surgery, which they had to pay for as well so, not worth it.
Trish: Yeah, I agree totally. Thank you so much, Amea. I really appreciate your time. I know how busy you are and how hard it’s been for us to connect so thanks so much for persevering.
Amea May: That’s okay. Thank you for having me.
Trish: Thanks. So ladies and guys out there if you’re looking for a surgeon to do your Blepharoplasty, you don’t know who to start with you can drop us an email to info@plasticsurgeryhelp.com or go on the website as well. So thanks very much Amea-May.
Amea May: Thank you.
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